GAZA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, a Palestinian young man from Gaza, sat on a wheelchair and wandered on Gaza City 's streets, holding empty bucket and rags to wash dirty fancy cars in order to earn some money to feed his family.
Abu Thuraya, 26, has lost both of his legs and one of his eyes in the Israeli Operation Cast Lead on the Gaza Strip that lasted for three weeks until early 2009.
As soon as a driver agreed to let Abu Thuraya wash his car, the disabled young man worked so hard until the car became shining. Nobody helped him but he smiled when finishing cleaning the car and handing it over to its owner.
He said he has never been pessimistic because now he is able to feed his family, two of them college students.
"Please never look at my disabled body, look at the great job I 'm doing," said Abu Thuraya, who used to work as a fisherman before he was critically wounded in an Israeli airstrike during the war. "I never felt despaired. It's not the end of the world and life should go on."
He refused offers of many car owners to give him money without doing any job. "I'm not a hobo or a beggar. I can work and make my living," he said.
"Although I earn little money, at the end of the day I feel happy and satisfied because I hate just staying at home or becoming a beggar," said Abu Thuraya, who lives in the Shatti ( Beach) refugee camp in western Gaza City.
According to figures issued by humanitarian organizations, poverty rate in the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by the Islamic Hamas movement since mid June 2007, has reached 60 percent.
Abu Thuraya said the Hamas-run ministry of social welfare paid him 400 dollars per month, which covers the house rent and the medicine for his sick father.
"Local and international humanitarian organizations didn't do anything to help me. I need an electronic wheelchair and I can't afford it. My dream is to get one day donated artificial limbs," said Abu Thuraya as he finished washing a car.
Official figures show that the Gaza Strip has tens of thousands of disabled people, and due to years of tight Israeli blockade the coastal enclave is in a bad need of medical equipment for these people.
"I feel embarrassed when people look at my disability, but life has to continue," said Abu Thuraya as he started to move for work in his wheelchair.
